The Dental Council of India (DCI) has laid down a new norm under which any new dental college could be allowed to come up anywhere only if it is attached to a medical college situated within a 10 km radius.
The neighbouring medical college is necessary to enable students to attend oral surgery and medicine classes that are not taught at dental colleges.
In order to stop half-baked academics in dental colleges and hospitals that are mushrooming in the country, the DCI has taken the move from this academic session of 2012-2013. Earlier, the DCI did not have any stipulation for such associations.
“Dental colleges are mushrooming in different parts of the country. We want to stop this trend. That is why we have ordered that no new dental college will be permitted if it is not attached to any medical college within a 10 km radius,” DCI President Dibyendu Majumder said.
“For oral surgery in BDS (bachelor of dental science) syllabus, attachment with a medical college is a must. We have rejected several proposals for setting up new dental colleges for not following the new directive,” Majumder said.
Around 290 dental colleges have come up in different parts of the country. A large number of them do not have any academic attachment with any medical college. About 40 dental colleges out of these 290 are run by various State Governments.
DCI is the sole authority monitoring dental colleges and hospitals in the country, just as Medical Council of India (MCI) monitors medical colleges.
The body is now exploring plans of streamlining dental colleges that are running without tie-ups with medical colleges.

The Kerala High Court on Monday issued notices to Central government and the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) seeking a directive to the CBI to probe into the alleged maladministration and corruption in the Dental Council of India.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A M Shaffique issued the directive on a petition filed by former member of Dental Council of India

Dr Shaji K Joseph, Kottayam. The petitioners alleged that the president and certain members of the dental council amassed more than `50 crore as gratification for granting permission for 1,187 new postgraduate seats for the academic year 2012-13 from the private managements.

The seats were granted without full-time faculties and infrastructure facilities in the private institutions, counsel for the petitioner K Radhakrishnan said.

The petitioners also challenged the amendments in the regulations of the Dental Council of India by reintroducing the four-plus-one system for BDS in place of the five-year integrated system introduced in 2007. It is alleged that there is corruption in the reintroduction of the new system.

The change is brought to abet the private managements. The private managements are not paying the internship fee to the students, the petitioner pointed out. The court also issued notices to DCI president Dr Dibyendu Mazumder, vice-president Dr Mahesh Verma and other members.

Assam Governor JB Patnaik on Saturday stressed the need for more dental colleges in the State, saying that dental health services in the country was grossly inadequate and that it was more pronounced in the North-east.
Patnaik said this while inaugurating the 43rd Annual Dental Conference organized by the Assam Branch of Indian Dental Association (ABIDA) at the NEDFi Convention Centre.

In his inaugural speech, the Governor said that a person’s health was the strongest indicator of the overall health and well-being of the person and that maintenance of oral hygiene was essential for maintaining sound health.

Adding humour to his speech, Patnaik said, “A beautiful damsel is generally described by poets as having pearl-like teeth or comparable to the pomegranate seeds. Unhealthy and ugly teeth makes a man feel inferior to others. On the other hand, if a person’s teeth are strong, healthy and chalk-white, it enhances the beauty of the face. If you defeat or demolish a person in an argument, you can say ‘Main unka daat tod diya.’ If an argument is not convincing, you can say it is a toothless argument…”

Patnaik added that modern dentistry was far advanced in the treatment of oral diseases and the dentist enjoys great demand in the urban and the rural areas.

While congratulating and welcoming the dental surgeons of the State to the conference, the Governor assured that he would extend every possible help to the dentist fraternity to solve their problems, and asked them to meet him in a small delegation and hand over a memorandum on their problems.

At the beginning of the inaugural session, the president of ABIDA, Dr C Kalita delivered the welcome address while its secretary J Barman read out its report of activities.

Dr BR Bhuyan, chief adviser of the conference and president of the organizing committee also addressed the gathering.

Doctors who fake being faculty members in private colleges so that the institutes get a clearance to admit students will now have to watch out.

In the first-ever action against this shameful yet common practice among doctors — showing themselves as full-time teachers in medical colleges in order to get clearance when in reality they aren't part of the faculty -- the Medical Council of India (MCI) has banned 25 doctors for three to five years from medical practice.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), continued its investigation into an alleged bribery case related to grant of approval to colleges for running various courses by members of Dental Council of India (DCI) and searched several places, including Bangalore and Mangalore.

CBI sources told Deccan Herald over phone that the agency expanded its probe searching premises of three members of the council's executive committee and six private dental colleges, in different places of the country.

Another source said both Jayakar and Bharath Shetty, were in Delhi for an executive committee meeting when the searches were carried out.

Insiders give clue

“The searches were carried out based on the information provided by some insiders,” a source said, without revealing the names of whistle-blowers.

Having received leads that some private colleges were given permissions to run courses despite several inadequacies in the infrastructure among other things, the agency also raided about six private dental colleges.

The CBI, on January 21, had arrested a Dental Council of India member (of a private dental college and hospital at Melmaruvathur, in Tamil Nadu) in an on-going
investigation of an alleged bribery case relating to grant of approval by Dental Council of India for starting.Post-Graduate Dental Course in 2012.

And earlier, (during second week of January, 2013) the agency had arrested a Member of Dental Council of India for accepting a bribe of Rs 25 lakh and three private persons/officials of a private dental college and hospital at Melmaruvathur for offering the bribe.

Trust involved

During initial investigation of this case, it was found that bribe amounts were allegedly accounted through a Trust in Chennai functioning at the dental clinic owned and run by the arrested Member of DCI. Both the arrested members were the Trustees of the said Trust.

Searches were conducted at the residential premises of accused at Chennai and the trust office at Chennai.

A sum of Rs 75 lakh was also recovered from a private person who was allegedly associated with the arrested Dental Council of India member in the matter of granting approval to various dental colleges

The Aditya Dental College in Beed may soon be de-affiliated due to the lasck of infrastructure and facilities. This was confirmed by sources in the higher and technical education ministry, members of which were sent there to look into the facilities provided by the college. The decision is however still withheld as the department is trying to find alternative arrangements for nearly 700-800 students, who will be left without a college after the closure of the institution.
Two weeks ago, three girl students of Aditya Dental College had complained of illegal detention by the college management as they were protesting the lack of facilities. The girls had alleged that the main administrator had made them sleep in the servants’ quarters and also refused to let them access the mess.
Following the complaints by the girls, their parents, who are residents of Mumbai, rushed to Beed and brought them back. The parents and students then approached the Forum for Fairness in Education, an NGO that demanded the closure of the college on the grounds that they had the signatures of nearly 70 per cent of the students.
“After seeing the media reports, minister of state for higher and technical education, Mr D.P. Sawant, asked the Maharashtra University of Health Science to investigate the allegations of the students. A committee comprising the vice-chancellor of MUHS and other department officials visited the college and submitted their report confirming the allegations,” a senior department official said.
However, he added that the decision to announce de-recognition of the college was withheld as the department was yet to relocate students to other colleges. The official said that once that was worked out, the college would be sent a notice regarding its de-recognition. “Care is being taken to ensure that the students do not lose a year. Sufficient steps are being taken so the students can make a smooth transition,” the official said.

What could send jitters down the spine of academic institutes making admissions in violation of rules, the J&K High Court Friday directed a Jammu-based dental college to deposit Rs 14 lakh with the J&K Legal Service Authority for “violating the norms of Dental Council of India” while making admissions.
Holding the institute guilty of not conducting the entrance test for admission to BDS course and instead admitting the students on the basis of merit in qualifying examination, the Court directed the institute to surrender 14 seats from its Management Quota each in 2013 and 2014 to the Board of Professional Entrance Examination so that the admissions against such seats are made from the meritorious students who appear in the Common Entrance Test.
Holding that the petitioner—Institute of Dental Sciences Sehora—had “admitted students for BDS courses [of] session 2006 in utter disregard of rules,” the court directed the beneficiaries of the admission (respondents 5-92 in the petition), to deposit Rs 10,000 each with the Registrar Judicial, High Court, Jammu. “The amount so deposited,” according to the court, “shall be given in equal proportion to three institutes in Jammu who will use it for improving facilities for visually-impaired students enrolled in such institutions, while Rs. 14 lakh would be spent on organizing legal literacy programmes for schedule caste, schedule tribe and other under-privileged sections of the society in J&K.”
A single bench of Justice Hasnain Massodi passed the directions on a petition preferred by the institute against University of Jammu seeking a direction to the varsity to register its students admitted in 2006 without holding the written test. The judgment was announced today at Jammu.
The detailed judgment running over 35 pages has extensively quoted law on the subject. The judgment while supporting the view that admission of 88 out of 100 candidates made by the petitioner institute in violation of the Dental Council of India regulations is illegal and liable to be set aside, raises some pertinent questions to hold a different view in the present case:
“The act of legitimizing admissions made in violation of rule/statute has been deprecated in number of cases by the Supreme Court and superior courts of the country (but)…the question that calls for an answer is as to whether the candidates admitted six years back after having completed their 5-year BDS courses and internship should be de-seated and their admissions cancelled?”
It reads: “In the present case all the stakeholders involved in grant of permission to the petitioner Institute to make admissions…with only exception of the students enrolled, were equally responsible for flouting the Dental Council of India Regulations.”
“In the circumstances,” the court has directed the responded university “to grant registration to the students – respondents 5 to 92 in the petition, of course subject to fulfillment of conditions namely deposit of the money, surrender of the seats, etc, by the institute.”
It holds: “The students, who responded to the advertisement notice though not completely innocent, are least responsible for late permission granted by the Central Government and irregularity in the admission process committed by the petitioner institute. This court is under a constitutional obligation to secure justice to the justice seekers that come before it and cannot lose sight of the fact that the students enrolled were by and large innocent without any significant role in the irregularity made.”
“It would be unjust and unfair to cancel their admission after they have been on the rolls of the petitioner Institute for six long years and are said to have completed their BDS courses including internship.”

BRIEF HISTORY
Government of India on recommendation of Dental Council of India had issued a Letter of Intent on September 22, 2006 to Trikuta Charitable Trust, Jammu for establishment of new Dental College under name and style of “Institute of Dental Sciences” at Sehora, Jammu, with an annual intake capacity of hundred students in Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course subject to the conditions laid down therein.
After the Trust conveyed its acceptance of the terms and conditions, the GoI vide letter dated Sep 28, 2006 conveyed formal permission to the Trust to establish a new Dental College.
The permission was to be valid only for one year, restricted to one batch of hundred students for the session 2006-2007. The process of admission to BDS was to be completed by Sep 30, 2006, which was later extended to Oct 15, 2006.
The petitioner institute however did not hold the written test and admitted the students on the basis of merit in qualifying examination. It had also exceeded its quota and utilized the quota of BOPEE while granting the admissions.
Later the Jammu University refused to register the 88 (eighty eight) candidates “admitted by the petitioner-Institute on its own, on the ground that the students were admitted without conducting any Entrance Examination and no permission was sought from the University of Jammu or from the Board of Professional Entrance Examination before making the admissions.”

STRICTURES AGAINST GOI/INSTITUTE
The court also passed strictures against the Government of India. “In the first place the Centre Government ought not to have granted permission to the Trust on 28th September 2006 to establish the Dental Institute with intake capacity of 100 students in the academic season of 2006-2007 and asked the institute to complete the admissions by 30th September 2006. The Centre Government ought to have realized that the deadline for completing admission process was 30th September in a calendar year and that it would be impossible for the petitioner institute to adhere to it.”
“The authorities at the helm of affairs in the concerned ministry of Central Government owe an explanation for delay and also for according permission only two days before deadline for admission was to end,” it said.
“The petitioner Institute is not in any manner least guilty of the breach committed by it. It ought to have deferred the admissions to the next academic year or made good use of the extension granted by Central Government vide its communication dated 10th October, 2006, in making admissions up to 15th October 2006,” it said.
“The petitioner Institute as already observed had time, though it was to proceed on rollercoaster speed, to make admissions in accordance with Dental Council of India Regulations.”

Amending the admission policy for post graduate degree/diploma courses in all government and private medical and dental colleges of the state, the Himachal Pradesh government on Friday sliced the quota for General Duty Officers (GDO) from 90 per cent to 66.6 per cent.
Besides this, the state government also increased the direct quota to 33.3 per cent.

The amendment followed the decision taken by the cabinet in this regard yesterday which reviewed the issue and observed that 90 per cent quota was "impractical" and sufficient numbers of GDOs were not available.

Principal Secretary-Health, Ali R Rizvi disclosed that the amended policy would come into force from 2013-14 academic session and the amendment would apply to 160 PG degree and diploma seats available in the state.

Further, the admission to PG Courses for 2013-14 would be on the basis of the National Eligibility Test conducted by the Government of India.

The application/ information brochure will be available from February 16 to March 16, 2013 and last date of receipt of applications would be March 30 while the tentative date for counselling will be April 5, 2013.

Rizvi said that the GDOs quota would have two categories, one for doctors who are working on regular basis and other for those appointed on contract basis.

The division of seats in both regular General Duty Officers and doctors on contract basis would be on the basis of their respective strength in the cadre.

Dubai School of Dental Medicine (DSDM), a new specialist dental school at Dubai Healthcare City, accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, today signed an agreement with The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd), a UK organization dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in dental practice.
Dubai School of Dental Medicine offers postgraduate programmes in a range of dental specialties. As part of its efforts to provide top-quality dental specialists for the region through world class academic programmes, DSDM will conjoint its Master of Science diploma in partnership with the specialist dental membership examinations offered by The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Marwan Abedin, CEO of Dubai Healthcare City, said: “The agreement with The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh comes in line with our objective of serving as a medical education hub in the region. The collaboration paves the way for dentists in the UAE and the region to pursue specialization courses with the backing of acclaimed institutions such as The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. We look forward to building synergies with other global medical institutes.”
“Today, DHCC has emerged as a medical hub that offers high quality treatment in line with international standards. However, the Middle East lacks home-grown professionals, although the region holds significant talent that can be groomed into a top-notch healthcare workforce. Towards this end, DHCC is seeking to provide the latest training programmes in healthcare specialization.”
“The inception of Dubai School of Dental Medicine has taken DHCC a step closer to developing into a strategic medical education center for the Middle East.”
Professor Richard Ibbetson, Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, RCSEd said: “The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is pleased to endorse the programme curricula in Dubai School of Dental Medicine and will conjoint with the institution’s exams. We are also delighted that DHCC has agreed to act as an examination hub in the Middle East providing the college with an opportunity to extend its influence as a global benchmark of standards in dental specializations. We are keen to support DHCC’s aim to build a specialized medical talent pool in the region, which is in line with our vision.”
Professor David Wray, Dean of DSDM, said: “Dubai School of Dental Medicine has been instituted to graduate talented dental specialists who will offer high quality dental treatment in the region. We additionally aim to provide dental graduates with academic and clinical training, which will groom them to become independent specialist practitioners. We are delighted that The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has partnered with us, which will allow us to extend comprehensive post-graduation programmes to achieve our vision. We look forward to our inaugural academic year and have recently enrolled the first batch of students for 2013.”
Driven by its interest to offer education, training and examination opportunities to enhance the competence of healthcare professionals, The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh liaises with external medical bodies and organizations representing the global surgical workforce. One of the most sought after medical training centers among doctors across the world, a global benchmark for higher specialist training, the medical college enjoys an international network with some 20,000 fellows and members based in almost 100 countries worldwide.
Dubai School of Dental Medicine will graduate up to 35 dental specialists every year. The school will offer accredited programmes in dental specialties such as endodontics, oral surgery, orthodontics and paediatric dentistry and intends to extend its programmes to include prosthodontics and periodontics in September 2013.
The internationally-acclaimed faculty at DSMD comprises senior academic staff and specialists from the US and the UK with extensive experience in postgraduate education and research. Students will pursue their academic curriculum at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Center, which hosts the DSDM academic offices

For the second time in less than six months, Dental Medical College (DMC), Raipur- the only government dental college in the state, has been denied permission to start post graduate course of Masters of Dental Surgery (MDS) by the Dental Council of India (DCI) on account of inadequate infrastructure and staff shortage.

The college, which was given time till February this year to upgrade its infrastructure and hire the adequate staff for the PG course after a DCI inspection in December last, failed to do so. The DCI team that visited the college for inspection last month found that the shortcomings existed both in the infrastructure and staff strength and hence disapproved the college's proposal.